The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus, and a communication method executed in the image forming apparatus.
In some electrophotographic type image forming apparatuses, a wireless communication portion such as IC tag is provided to a replacement member such as toner container. In this type of image forming apparatus, the operation of the image forming apparatus is controlled on the basis of member data, such as identification information of a replacement member, which is received from the wireless communication portion.
For example, in the image forming apparatus, the member data is received from the wireless communication portion in the following procedure. First, the wireless communication portion is activated in response to radiation of a radio wave from the antenna of the image forming apparatus toward the wireless communication portion. Next, a transmission request for transmitting the member data is transmitted to the wireless communication portion. Next, in response to the transmission request, a response signal that includes the member data and that has been encoded at a predetermined bit period is transmitted from the wireless communication portion. Then, the response signal received from the wireless communication portion is decoded, whereby the member data is acquired. For example, the response signal is decoded at a predetermined timing in the bit period.